Flight of Athena
by Miyako Suou
Summary: Kinsey Kestrel is a young aviator during World War 2, and this is the story of what happens to her and her dragon, Athena. All OCs. Prologue: the hatching of Athena.
1. Prologue

Hello! This is my first Temeraire fic, but I've written three for Harry Potter. This idea just hit me one day, so hopefully you'll all like it. This story is supposed to take place during World War II, so if anyone has any ideas of which battles I should include, go ahead and comment. All characters are my own, except maybe a couple references to the _Temeraire_ series later on.

**Disclaimer: Naomi Novik owns the **_**Temeraire**_** series and its characters. I'm only borrowing the ideas for my own use.**

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Prologue

"Kinsey! Wake up! You have to go! Now!"

The frantic screaming and shaking was what woke Kinsey Kestrel from her otherwise undisturbed sleep. She groaned softly, shaking her head as she realized that it wasn't her roommates who were shaking her, but Captain Starling, a woman who often ferried people from town to town on her Greyling.

"What is it?" she shot awake, suddenly very scared.

This was the second time within a week that she had been abruptly awoken in the middle of the night, and the last time had been because of a family tragedy. This second waking was causing her to fear a second calamity.

"The egg is hatching."

And suddenly, Kinsey understood. This event was directly linked to the first. But she had no time to argue, because she belonged to the RAF now, and if they ordered her to see the egg, then that was what she was going to do.

She yanked on a pair of trousers and boots as well as a loose shirt within the span of a minute and grabbed her aviator's jacket as she blew out the door. Captain Starling ran ahead of her, waving her arms and calling out as soon as they were in sight of her dragon. Kinsey pulled on the jacket as she ran, followed by the leather gloves she'd shoved in the breast pocket from the day before.

In only a few moments, she was fully dressed and swinging into her harness behind the Captain. Sparrow, Captain Starling's dragon, leapt skyward as soon as she signaled that she was safely clipped onto his back. The wind whipped the hair that was loose beneath the edge of her aviator cap around behind her and stung her eyes so they teared up. She took a moment to pull the goggles down in front of her eyes, only just in time as they hit a cloudbank. When they emerged, she was dripping, but that hardly mattered. When they reached the air base near London she would be warm again.

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After what must have been hours, Kinsey finally saw the lights of London stretched out below her. Sparrow banked sharply to pull them into a descending spiral towards what must have been the landing pad. Kinsey waited for touchdown nervously, her stomach churning. She never got airsick, but right now she felt as if she was going to vomit.

The egg that was waiting for her should not have been hers at all. The guilt was killing her, and she was afraid that the egg would sense this and reject her. Even so, she had to try, because she was the next likely candidate for that egg.

They were getting lower. The ground was only forty feet away, so Kinsey began to shift on Sparrow's back, ready to hit the ground running. She could see a group of officers on the ground waiting for her, waving their arms in the air as they approached.

Ten feet. She unclipped her harness, and as soon as she felt Sparrow land, she jumped off his back, stumbling a bit as she started trying to go forward before her legs caught up with her. An officer steadied her, and then they were all running towards the hatchery without a word between them. They all flung themselves inside, and one of the hatchery workers looked up at them from her post.

"You're just in time!" she said as Kinsey flung herself onto her knees in front of the egg.

The egg was cracked deeply, and she could hear the dragonet moving around inside the shell. It was nearly out, and had they been even five minutes later she might have missed the hatching altogether. Another loud crack echoed through the hot, humid chambers, and in a flurry of long wings, the dragonet tumbled out of her shell in front of her. Kinsey leaned forward, looking at the awkward creature before her. It was hard to believe that in just over six weeks' time the tiny being in front of her would be sixty feet long with a one-hundred and twenty foot wingspan.

The dragonet lifted her molten orange-yellow eyes to regard Kinsey carefully, apparently examining her for her worth. Then, flapping the blue and orange wings a few times, she finally seemed to come to a decision.

"Hello," the young Longwing said shyly.

"Um, hello," the girl was somehow startled despite expecting some sort of response from the creature in front of her. "I'm Kinsey."

"Oh," the dragonet seemed slightly dejected. "I don't have a name."

"Do you want me to give you one?' Kinsey asked, mind suddenly racing. She had forgotten all about the dragon needing a name in her panicked flight here, and now she found herself with a blank mind.

"Oh, yes! Please," the young Longwing perked right up. "Something fierce and frightening would do quite well."

Kinsey quickly thought through all the fierce names she could think of, and finally she said, "How about 'Athena'? That's the Greek goddess of war."

"Okay," the newly christened dragon was very excited now. "I like it."

"So do I," Kinsey grinned at the small creature.

Then Athena paused. "What does 'Kinsey' mean?"

"It means 'King's Victory'. My mother told me that, and said it was a good name to have when one day you'll be a fighter for England."

"We get to fight?" Athena asked fiercely.

"Maybe," Kinsey smiled in reply, then became more serious as she remembered the state of the world at that moment and changed her mind. "Probably."

"Well, nobody will stand a chance against us!" Athena decided. "After all, right from the moment we were born, our names declared that we will fight, and we will win!"

"You may be right," Kinsey laughed at the young dragonet's vehemence.

"I know I'm right," Athena was adamant.

Kinsey really, really hoped that she was.

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So, what do you think? Good idea? Bad? Tell me in a review!


	2. Athena's Crew

I haven't added onto this in forever! I apologize sincerely to anyone who was hoping for an update, say, six months ago… I finally updated though, so hopefully I'll do so regularly now.

**Disclaimer: Naomi Novik owns the Temeraire series and its characters. I'm only borrowing the ideas for my own use.**

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The date was August 25, 1939, and Poland and Great Britain had just signed the Agreement of Mutual Assistance. With Germany on the move, the RAF was taking no chances. More than the normal amounts of dragons were breeding in order that there would be many new hatchlings for the predicted war looming on the horizon. Athena was only one of the young dragons being rushed through training.

"Come on, Athena, you're almost there!" Kinsey urged her dragon.

It had been a month and a half since Athena had hatched, and she was now at what Kinsey assumed to be her full growth. But even before that, as soon as Athena could carry the young woman's weight upon her back, they'd been thrust into training.

"What do you mean 'almost there'?" the Longwing griped back, with another beat of her vibrantly coloured wings. "This is an endurance test, there _is_ no 'almost there.'"

In spite of her grumbling, the young dragon took another deep breath and valiantly kept up her pace.

"I'll bet you can beat that Regal Copper over there," Kinsey said, grinning.

Athena puffed up her chest. "Obviously, there is no doubt in my mind. He's much to heavy to keep this up for long anyway."

"He's stayed up fine so far," observed her rider.

"Well, I'm going to beat him, and there's nothing he can do to change it!" Athena chanced a glance over her wing to offer her rider a draconic smirk.

"Athena! Keep your neck straight! How many times must I remind you! And Captain Kestrel! Don't encourage her!"

Kinsey ducked her head at the reprimand, but Athena merely hissed her displeasure at being caught and turned her head forward again.

"At least _I'm_ not named after a stupid ship," she growled, complying with the training master even as she grumbled.

"Come, lovely, Temeraire only wants you to improve," Kinsey told her dragon sternly. "Besides, I think the name has style."

"What about _my_ name?" asked Athena, clearly looking for compliments.

Kinsey laughed, not at all averse to giving them, "Of course, love. You have the fiercest name in the entire convent."

"Not everyone can be named after a goddess," the dragon said smugly. Then she paused, "Well, there is Valkyerie, but I hardly think she counts, since those aren't actually goddesses."

"So, do you fancy yourself a Goddess, then Athena?" a sneering voice interrupted.

"Ignore him, love," sighed Kinsey.

Athena knew her captain was probably right, because she usually was. But that kind of challenge was hard to ignore! The Anglewing and his captain were both smirking at her. Oh, she _hated_ Scorn! The smaller dragon was always poking fun at her, and at a lot of the other dragons as well.

"Shut up, Scorn!" she hissed, the sound a warning of her offensive capabilities.

"Going to hit me with acid, Athena?" he gave her a toothy draconic grin.

Kinsey shook her head. Why did she even bother?

"Come on, let's not argue," she pleaded with them.

"I'm going to beat you, Scorn," Athena ignored Kinsey's request.

"That is highly unlikely," the other dragon said. "I'm lighter than you are."

"That doesn't make a difference!" argued Athena.

As the two continued in their childish argument, Kinsey studied the Anglewing's captain, a young man by the name of Kaelen Dalhart. He was watching the squabble as well, a slight smirk lingering on his face. He and his dragon both liked to be an annoyance to the people around them. He caught her watching him and his grin widened, and he flicked his dark hair out of his face.

"See something you like, Kestrel?" he called over to her.

"Bugger off, Dalhart!" she answered, flushing.

She didn't like him, not at all! Stupid prat.

The rest of the time they spent in the air, she pointedly ignored him, even as Athena and Scorn snapped back and forth. She could feel his eyes on her, but refused to give in the temptation to stare right back at him. He was a damned nuisance was all! Besides, he was always making fun of her and it annoyed her. So there!

Eventually, Athena had to land, even though it meant that Scorn would beat her. But if she didn't then she would tear a muscle, or worse, crash out of exhaustion. She pretended not to see the Anglewing shoot her a triumphant grin as she landed, folding her long wings as she did.

"Good job, Athena," Temeraire said as Kinsey and her mount went past.

"Thank you, sir," she tried to sound proud of her accomplishment, but it was annoying her that stupid Scorn had been able to beat her. At least she'd beat the Regal Copper, like she'd promised.

"Don't be so grouchy, Athena!" Kinsey berated her. "It's not as if this makes him better than you. _He_ can't spray acid, after all, and you memorized the signals much faster than he did."

"Hm," she replied shortly. "Yes, but he can also do those tight turns that I can't do and he _did_ beat me."

"Cheer up!" her rider grinned up at her. "Tomorrow we get assigned crew! That means that we'll get to order them all around!"

"That's true," the Longwing mused thoughtfully. "That might be better then."

"I'm off to dinner, but I'll visit you later, how about that?" Kinsey asked her friend.

"Okay," Athena sighed. "Just you wait, I'll beat him eventually."

"You have him beat by a mile already, dearest," was the proclamation Kinsey made before she turned to go. "You're the best dragon in the RAF."

The next morning, Athena was fitted up in her harness and ready to go. She was very excited because today she was to be assigned her very own crew and it made her feel terribly important. Not to mention she was to be made formation head and Scorn was in her formation. She grinned at him smugly every chance she got, but he was doing better at ignoring her than she was at ignoring him.

Kinsey was much less excited about the prospect of having such a large crew because a lot of the people she would be commanding were older and more experienced than her. She stood beside Athena on the airfield with all of her fellow captains and their dragons, waiting to receive their crew.

As Kinsey waited, she mused briefly on the differences between the dragon section of the RAF and the rest of the Air Force. The other section was made up of aeroplanes, or as Athena liked to call them, 'metal dragons'. Kinsey liked the dragon section better, because there was no way to converse with a plane, but it was true that there was no need to feed them and they were easier to maintain.

There was also the fact that the rest of the entirety of all armed forces in the United Kingdom were made up of men. She knew there were women nurses and such, but her section was the only one where it was acceptable to be a female aviator in battle. She supposed it had started because of the Longwing predilection for female handlers, but it had grown such that females were being put forward as well as males for any of the new dragon hatchlings. It also meant that some of her own crew would be female, and she knew that there were a few of the girls she had trained with that disliked her, and she them. It was unfortunate, but this could be war, and there was no place here for minor disputes.

Still, she was nervous, and she hoped that she would make a good captain and would not let down her family name.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to her, the Commander of the Wing began to call out names and to which dragon they had been assigned at the same time that his aide began handing out a list to each captain.

She bit back a groan of frustration when she heard the Commander say in his deep, gravelly voice, "Alicia Brockway, tail gunner, to Captain Kestrel and Athena's squad."

Alicia Brockway hated her with a passion, and she never even knew why that was. All efforts to try and make a truce had been rebuffed, and now she was in charge of the girl.

She let out a hiss when her friend, Linnet Harrington was assigned to Dalhart's crew as his Navigator. She felt sorry that poor Linnet would have to put up with the sarcastic and snarky Dalhart, but there was little she could do about it. Just as she was thinking that she wished she could trade Linnet for Alicia, the girl drew near enough to sneer at her.

"Oh look, lucky Harrington has gotten assigned to Kaelen. Now if only I had been assigned there instead of here. You're such a sneaky little thief, aren't you Kestrel? Always top of the class, panting after all the professors… I'll bet you're happy about what happened to Alwyn aren't you?"

"Shut your trap, Brockway," Kinsey's voice had icicles clinging to it. "Don't you dare talk about my sister!"

Kinsey felt a small part of her twist in pain, but she ignored it. This was going to be a long day.

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I encourage anyone who wants to see any particular battles or has any ideas of how the RAF uses dragons to fight alongside and against WWII technology, I'd be happy to hear them!


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